“Disappeared?” Charlie repeated.

“One of the old guys wasn’t paying his bills,” said Ty. “He’s been staying here for years, but all of a sudden he stopped paying his rent. He’s one of the retired magicians. Mr. Madagascar.”

Ty looked around quickly, as if he were afraid someone might be listening. Then he motioned for Charlie to follow him past the potted palms and into an even darker corner. They sat down behind a painted screen covered with dragons.

“I have a lot of jobs around here,” Ty explained. “One of them is to pick up their rent once a month. If someone’s late, I go talk to them and see if they’re having a problem.”

You probably scare them, too, thought Charlie.

Ty was tall and muscular, and not someone to mess with or lie to.

“So I was supposed to go up and talk to Mr. Madagascar a few days ago,” Ty went on. “But I didn’t.”

“Why not?” Charlie asked.

“I was in the middle of an epic battle in Empire of Blood, okay?” Ty said.

That was the first thing Ty had said that really made sense to Charlie. Charlie spent a lot of time after school on his own favorite game, Sherlock Holmes Maximum Z, a detective mystery adventure. He understood how important it was to concentrate on a battle or investigation.

“I was slaughtering everyone,” Ty said with a grin. “No one could beat me. There was no way I was stopping. In a few hours I finished the battle, and when it was done, I forgot about Mr. M. I didn’t remember until the next day at school. So I rushed home and ran up to Mr. M.’s room, but he was gone.”

“Maybe he’ll come back,” said Charlie. “Maybe he went on a trip.”

“I don’t think so,” said Ty. “Come on, I’ll show you his apartment.”

Charlie followed Ty back into the main lobby. As they walked past the counter, the girl with the pigtails waved at Ty and said hello. Ty grumbled something and kept walking. The girl just smiled.

“Who’s that?” asked Charlie. “Your sister?”

Ty made a face. “Her name’s Annie Solo. She works here in the afternoons,” he said. “And I don’t have a sister. I’m an only child. Thank goodness.”

They stopped in front of a row of three elevators. The doors looked like they were carved from gold. Above each door, a gold half-circle with a golden arrow indicated what floor the elevator was on.

A bell rang and the elevator doors on the far left slid open.

“Our luck,” said Ty. “It’s Brack’s elevator.”

The elevator was lined in faded red leather. To one side stood a thin, elderly man in a maroon-and-black uniform. He smiled a wrinkly smile as he saw Ty.

“Good afternoon, Master Yu,” he said in a deep, clear voice. “A friend of yours?”

“This kid?” said Ty, nodding toward Charlie. “Nope. That’s just Hitch.”

“Short for Hitchcock,” said Charlie. “Charlie Hitchcock is my name.”

“Ah, like the famous director, Alfred Hitchcock,” said the operator. “Rear Window, Psycho, The Birds.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Tyler. “What birds?”

“Hitchcock directed some of the world’s greatest films, like The Birds,” replied Brack. “He was the master of suspense.”

“Yeah?” Tyler said. “Well, this Hitchcock is just here doing a report for school about the hotel. I was telling him about the magicians and stuff. You know, that kind of thing.”

The older man nodded slowly. “Ah, yes. One must beware the great Abracadabra,” he said. “There is magic in its walls.”

Ty chuckled and glanced over at Charlie. “Brack’s always saying things like that,” Ty said.

“It is true, Master Yu,” said the elevator operator. “Things happen here without explanation. Like the blackouts, for example.”

“Blackouts?” Charlie repeated nervously. The last thing he needed was to get stuck in an elevator with these two weirdoes if the electricity went out or something.

“It’s nothing,” said Ty. “Just a little problem with the lights. They went out a few times last week. But they’re fixed now.”

“Um, okay,” Charlie said.

“That’s not the kind of magic I meant, Brack,” Ty said. “I mean, you know, the magical kind. Not the electrical kind.”

Brack nodded. “Master Yu will tell you. This hotel was built by magic,” he said. “Never trust what you see here. Or what you don’t see. People may even seem to disappear from time to time . . . but remember, it’s a big hotel.”

Charlie wondered if the old man was referring to Mr. Madagascar.

A strange look came over the operator’s face. “Now you see him, now you don’t,” he said, and pointed past them toward the lobby.

Ty and Charlie both turned to look, but the lobby was empty. When they turned around, the elevator was empty, too. Brack had vanished.